


A New Accord

by Magnetism_bind



Category: Black Sails
Genre: Conversations, Fresh Starts, Gen, Past Betrayals, Platonic Relationships, Treaties, alternate versions of that scene in s4
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-12
Updated: 2018-07-12
Packaged: 2019-06-09 01:27:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15256392
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Magnetism_bind/pseuds/Magnetism_bind
Summary: Silver & Max share a conversation.





	A New Accord

How can she be so sure of herself? How can she know this is the right course? Why doesn’t she see that getting rid of him would ease her troubles? Silver stares at her, this woman, who is so infinitely distracting and infuriating and beyond clever. He still doesn’t know what led him to her, but he knows that knowing her, has made his life both infinitely richer and infinitely maddening.

The air in the room is warm and stale. Max's words are soft but sure. She does not regret this decision and Silver wonders how it feels to be that certain of anything, especially a decision like this. 

"Are you sure it wouldn't have been more worthwhile anyway?" Silver says after a moment. If their positions were reversed...and in a way, they had been. It would have been easy for him to tell Billy they didn't need Max alive, to turn that decision of Flint's into a decision of his own. Max, had after all, sent men after him that last time they had met. And now here she sits, telling him that she couldn't live with having sent him to his death. Why not?

Max watches him. “You seem to be waiting for something. Do you want to hear another answer?" 

"I suppose I want to know what makes you so certain that it would be difficult to live with." Silver looks around and finds the decanter of brandy sitting on the side table. He raises it questioningly at Max and after a moment of consideration, she nods. He pours them both a cup and brings it over to her. 

"Thank you." Max gazes at the glass. "I do not consider myself incapable of taking part of someone's death." There's a brief pause as their eyes meet and they both remember a floor soaked in blood, Silver aiding her and keeping her secrets. Things could have gone very differently that day if Silver hadn’t kept that secret and they both know it. "But it depends on the situation, and the person involved...and I find I do not care to have a hand in your death, John Silver, in spite of all that has passed between us or because of it.”

Silver nods. Max sips her brandy and he gazes at the sunlight out the window. Much has passed between them. Exhaustion seeps into his bones. He’s so tired of maneuvering things, positioning people into place, all the little games of this broader war.

Max’s words are still whispering in his brain and he knows he has to ask. There is no hope in this universe that his wild fancy is true. But he has to chase it all the same. He has to know the truth. Unless you see someone’s corpse with your own two eyes, they’re not dead, in his mind.

"Could you find out?" He asks.

Max cocks her head and considers the question. "You want to know the families that made use of the plantation...who sent people there."

"Yes." Silver knows she wants to know what he's looking for. Who he's hoping to find, and in another time, he would have told her, in order to gain more of Max's trust, to build their alliance, to ensure that that he has leverage over Flint. It would be easy to use this to rebuild that alliance now and who knows, he might have need of it in the days to come. But he can’t.

He's not doing this for leverage over Flint. Not this time. He's building a backup, creating another plan because the one they have in place now isn't necessarily going to be the only way forward. He knows that much, even before Billy sowed his blatant seeds of doubt. It's leverage of a kind. He acknowledges that much, but not the sort where he would share it with Max. This knife he holds over Flint will be his and his alone to wield, but he doesn’t want to wield it, doesn’t even want to carry it with him in his belt. But he needs it, clings to it, it’s instinct and he’s survived too long on instinct to stop now.

Max is waiting then as she looks at him, whatever is on his face makes her decide without knowing anything further and then she simply nods. "I can try to find out."

"Thank you." Silver says. "I would be in your debt." He places it on the table between them, accepting his debt to her yet again. He finds he doesn’t mind being in Max’s debt on Flint’s behalf.

"That seems to be the way of it between us." Max says, a little tiredly. She takes a sip of brandy and sighs.

"It does." A smile tugs at Silver's mouth. "Shall we call it even?"

"I would like that." Max raises her glass. "To a new future for Nassau then?"

"To a new future for Nassau." Silver raises his brandy. "And to us." It has been a long time coming, this future and Max deserves a royal place in it. Of all the women Silver has known in his life, and he’s known many, she is the most deserving of a new future.

Max smiles then, "To us." 

They are more alike than she wants to admit, Silver knows. And really, when it comes down to it, there are few others in Nassau that he'd rather be compared to. Max is clever and resourceful. She's built her future and she picks her allies carefully. He's glad they seem to be aligned once more, and relieved too. Max is not someone he wants to keep as an enemy. He'd rather they were friends. Whether that's even possible now, he doesn't know. But he likes to think it is. And there is always room for more hope in this brand new tomorrow that Flint is building. Why not include this?

Whether or not Max learns something, whether or not his intuition is correct and his hope real, Silver fervently hopes that this peace between Max and himself will last. As long as Nassau stands, and long after, as long as the sea is free and the sands shift upon the beach.

 


End file.
